We now have another group of taxpayers who are fighting back against greedy government. My ancestors in Ireland have decided that enough is enough and there is widespread civil disobedience against a new property tax.

Ireland is facing a revolt over its new property tax. The government said less than half of the country’s 1.6 million households paid the charge by Saturday’s deadline to avoid penalties. And about 5,000 marched in protest against the annual conference of Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s Fine Gael party. Emotions ran raw as police backed by officers on horseback stopped demonstrators from entering the Dublin Convention Centre. …One man mistakenly identified as the government minister responsible for collecting the tax had to be rescued by police from an angry scrum. Kenny said his government had no choice, but to impose the new charge as part of the nation’s efforts to emerge from an international bailout. …The charge this year is a flat-fee €100 ($130) per dwelling, but is expected to rise dramatically next year once Ireland starts to vary the charge based on a property’s estimated value. Anti-tax campaigners have urged the public to ignore the tax demand, arguing that the government doesn’t have the power to collect it.

What makes this new tax so outrageous is that Irish taxpayers already have been victimized with higher income tax rates and a more onerous value-added tax. Yet they weren’t the ones to cause the nation’s fiscal crisis. Ireland is in trouble for two reasons, and both deal with the spending side of the fiscal equation.

Heck, no wonder the Irish people are up in arms. They’re being asked to cough up more money to finance a bailout that was both corrupt and wasteful.

Let’s close by looking at American attitudes about tax evasion. Here’s part of a column from Forbes, which expresses surprise that Americans view tax evasion more favorably than behaviors such as shoplifting and littering.

A new survey suggests Americans consider cheating on their taxes more socially acceptable than shoplifting, drunk driving or even throwing trash out the window of a moving car. …only 66% of the participants said they “completely agree” that “everyone who cheats on their taxes should be held accountable” and only 72% completely agreed that “it’s every American’s civic duty to pay their fair share of taxes”–suggesting, as the Shelton study does, that perhaps disapproval of tax evasion is not as strong as, say, disapproval of stealing from private businesses.

I’m not sure, though, why anybody would be shocked by these results. We have a government in Washington that is pervasively corrupt, funneling money to corrupt scams like Solyndra.

These same people want higher tax rates, which will further encourage people to protect their income.

I think you’re overreacting to this based on an understandable misapprehension. This isn’t an INCREASE in taxes, it’s just a change from a transaction-based system (‘stamp duty’ – you know, the same stamp duty that caused us Bostonians to throw tea into the harbor?) – to normal annual real estate taxes, which are paid every year.

A recurring annual payment real estate tax is a better system because it ties payments to everybody, not just those buying and selling homes, and hence reduced the inequitable distribution of local taxes.

‘My ancestors in Ireland’ ? Your cousins, or your distant relatives, perhaps. It’s not likely they are your ‘ancestors’, aside from maybe a few really old people; but then, it’s not likely they’d be protesting.
Aside from that, your piece is concise and informative.

Ireland has been dominated by hardcore Socialists for decades. Taxes are what Socialists do. Elections and political choices have consequences. Perhaps the Irish are starting to pull their heads out of their collective Gaelic behinds.

Now this is the kind of revolt Americans can get next to. Stop paying outrageous taxes designed to support government as usual and the all-powerful, because they hand out the money, bureaucrats. Wisconsin, think what you are doing to your future before you vote to recall Walker, a man who wants you to have a future.

[…] Revolt of the Irish Tax Slaves What makes this new tax so outrageous is that Irish taxpayers already have been victimized with higher income tax rates and a more onerous value-added tax. Yet they weren’t the ones to cause the nation’s fiscal crisis. Ireland is in trouble for two reasons, and both deal with the spending side of the fiscal equation. 1. The burden of government spending exploded last decade, more than doubling in less than 10 years. This wiped out all the gains from fiscal restraint in the 1980s and 1990s. […]

Property taxes are one of the worst ever created. If there is one thing you should be able to retain when your finances are failing is your shelter. Once the state can levy a tax on your property, you no longer have property rights. You are just leasing it until you can no longer afford the payment.

I’ve long thought that any proposed increase in taxes of any sort by any politician ought to trigger an election for the position held. That would given the long suffering public an effective vote on the proposal…

Hey JWW. The trouble with us voting for governments in Ireland is that no matter who we vote in the results are always the same. You have corruption as usual along with obscene salaries for themselves and their cronies in the civil service. Ireland is a false democracy because unfortunately we are in effect now being ruled by the big powers in Europe who do not care about the Irish people. They will let our puppet government exist and let them have their huge salaries as long as they crack the whips on our backs to cough up our life savings to the banksters. Most of the people who paid this tax were frightened older people who were told that officials would come knocking on their doors and put them in prison. The rest were from the very wealthy areas of Dublin and Cork cities who would live in the same neighborhoods as our elite politicians and bankers. People in Ireland are very angry but there is a lot of control over the media here in Ireland and the rest of the world think that we are doing nothing but don’t worry we will get more intense as time goes by. Europe is determined to slash and burn our island until there is nothing left and we will still go into default when its all over. Our so called leader Enda Kenny has a salary far larger than Barak Obamas for governing an Island with only four and a half million people.

>”Ireland is in trouble for two reasons, and both deal with the spending side of the fiscal equation .. Irish politicians decided to give a bailout not only to depositors of the nation’s failed banks, but also to bondholders.”

That’s the big one. In spite of public sector spending being high, Ireland was no Greece prior to the governments decision to put the taxpayers on the hook for the mistakes of private institutions.

For years the Irish wanted more and more government expenditure and got it. It is the way votes are bought in Ireland. They actively participated in the property explosion, and screamed that the government had to bail out the banks.

Now, all this has to be paid for and a small number, led by the evil, murdering sines party (the far left socialists in Sinn Fein) begrudge paying 100 euros a year to go towards local government expenditure. This in a country where they abolished rates on private dwellings some years ago.

How are public services to be paid for? Currently, out of taxation and borrowing!

The size of government needs to be reduced. Eventually people will revolt against the tremendous amount of taxes they are forced to pay. Furthermore, corrupt scams like Solyndra and bailouts make people resent paying their taxes and people will look for tax havens in other countries if taxes are not reduced. Great article Dan. Keep up the good work.

Property tax? Hearth tax in the middle ages! Each had a consequence of restriction of individuals at their point of basic necessity. This is criminal in itself, but at least those poor souls in the middle ages didnt own extra rental properties that attracted tax burdens,(tongue in cheek)

The number of places that have already fallen by 40% or more is growing , while the number of million euro suburbs around the country is decreasing. The market does not crash everywhere overnight, you need to be patient , your chance to purchase at even cheaper prices is only a matter of sitting back and waiting .You can be assured of prices falling further. Look at Japan for evidence!